MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) — A train carrying the bodies of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crash victims has arrived in the city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported Tuesday.
"The train with the bodies of those who died in the Boeing-777 plane crash has arrived in Kharkiv," the agency said.
Earlier today, the train left the city of Donetsk. A group of Malaysian experts investigating into the crash and government officials accompanied the train.
“The train carrying the bodies of the victims arrived in Donetsk at night. The delegation of Malaysian experts and officials left in a passenger car trailing the train. They will arrive in Kharkiv in a few hours,” a representative of the Donetsk Railway told RIA Novosti earlier on Tuesday.
A press briefing will be held in Kharkiv. The bodies are later to be airlifted to Amsterdam.
Overnight, authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic handed over two flight data recorders, known as black boxes, recovered from the crash site to the Malaysian experts.
The republic’s prime minister, Alexander Boroday, and Andrei Purgin, his deputy, signed a handover agreement, stating that experts from the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are to get access to them.
The head of Malaysia’s delegation said the black boxes appear to be in a good condition.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement that authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic provided international investigators with safe access to the crash site.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
Ukrainian authorities place the blame for the crash on independence supporters in the country’s eastern regions, while the latter maintain they do not have the means to shoot down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.
Russia urged Ukraine not to use the crash for political goals and called for a thorough investigation under ICAO auspices.
